DVIDS – News – BlueTIDE event connects NUWC Division Newport with technology companies to advance US Navy capabilities

NEWPORT, R.I. – Fifteen technology companies participated in a mission-driven prize challenge, and dozens of others exhibited their capabilities on Aug. 28 during the 2025 Blue Technology Innovation Demonstration Event (BlueTIDE) held at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport’s Narragansett Bay Test Facility (NBTF) and Sail Newport at Fort Adams State Park.

Hosted by NUWC Division Newport’s Northeast Tech Bridge in conjunction with nonprofit partner 401 Tech Bridge, BlueTIDE connects innovative businesses with U.S. Navy scientists and engineers and Department of Defense stakeholders to facilitate rapid delivery of capabilities to the warfighter.

“This has been an incredible opportunity for industry to showcase technology and innovation to a broad range of government technical experts, all of whom contribute to advancing subsea and seabed capabilities,” Division Newport Technical Director Marie Bussiere said. “We rely on industry every single day to help deliver these capabilities to the fleet. The companies at BlueTIDE, along with so many other maritime innovators across the southeastern New England area, are force multipliers for the U.S. Navy.”

The prize challenge portion at BlueTIDE was the culmination of months of work. In March, Division Newport publicly launched the prize challenge, which sought companies to take part in a subsea and seabed mission centered on the monitoring and protection of undersea infrastructure, an example being telecom cables. More than 60 businesses applied from across the globe, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway, Finland, Greece, Switzerland and India. After a multi-phase down-select process, 15 businesses advanced to the in-water demonstration at the NBTF.

Technological focus areas included autonomous undersea vehicles, cross-domain communications, high-resolution undersea imaging, and various types of sensors. Using a scoring rubric, engineers and scientists from across the Division Newport technical departments evaluated the 15 companies as they performed the mission vignette, which involved collecting and analyzing information about a potential threat to the infrastructure and reporting it back to the Maritime Operations Center (MOC) for response mobilization. At the end of the day, the four companies with top-scoring technologies were each awarded $50,000.

“From a warfare center standpoint, this was a great event that showed that we’re working to make NUWC, and the Navy enterprise, more accessible to industry,” Northeast Tech Bridge Director Julie Kallfelz said. “We are finding ways for industry, particularly the small- and medium-sized businesses, the non-traditional businesses, to engage with us. This prize challenge added a fun-competitive layer on top of that.”

Kallfelz said both sides — Division Newport and industry — benefited from the event and follow-on engagements are in the works.

“This was an opportunity to get our engineers and the right people talking to each other and working to figure out what technologies might be viable in helping solve some Navy problems,” she said.

At Sail Newport, Division Newport scientists and engineers were on hand to learn about emerging technologies, engage with industry partners and view demonstrations of products that could advance current or future Navy projects. Kevin Quinn, an engineer in the Sensors and Sonar Systems Department, was making his first appearance at BlueTIDE and spent a decent amount of time chatting with representatives from a company that develops small unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).

“As research and development engineers, we can stay abreast of the latest tech by plowing through websites and mining useful technology within our sphere of interest. However, venues like BlueTIDE help push us beyond our immediate project’s scope and force us to consider new possibilities,” Quinn said. “Often it’s the human connection, with the ‘aha!’ in conversation, that causes a breakthrough innovation. I had several of those conversations at BlueTIDE that could lead to some real capability necessary for our complex missions ahead.”

Dr. Kaelyn Gamel, a research scientist in the Ranges, Engineering and Analysis Department, explores “animal locomotion” and how biomechanics can be incorporated into robotic technology. At BlueTIDE, she was drawn to an autonomous “dog” and wanted to learn more about its commands and movements.

“The key is to figure out what’s out there right now, and more for me, it’s what research questions aren’t being asked, or aren’t being looked at,” Gamel said. “Can we pull from what animals have been doing for millions of years? What is a more efficient way of navigating the world?

“These events help us see what’s out there, where the technology is at and how we can improve on the research end, but also what we can leverage from what they’ve already been doing. That way, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

While BlueTIDE, which drew upward of 600 people, can put Division Newport scientists and engineers on the path to technological breakthroughs, it also drives economic growth in the state and region, Kallfelz said.

“It’s in the Navy’s interest to have a booming, thriving Blue Tech economy here,” she said. “By design, what we want to do is build these events where we have relevant eyes — investors, customers, suppliers, partners, government folks — getting together and have real discussions about the problems we’re trying to solve and what comes next.”

“Division Newport wants to send its employees to school, to better themselves and their careers,” McGovern said. “We have this opportunity available, so if you are thinking about it, you should apply.”

NUWC Newport is the oldest warfare center in the country, tracing its heritage to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869. Commanded by Capt. Kevin Behm, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher’s Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.